The super high efficiency of solar electric propulsion allows
for such a big change in the observatory's orbit. I hope that
we can now stop hearing some space "experts" continuing
to proclaim that such a feat violates the laws of phyiscs.

The telescope would move to a higher orbit for its observations
and periodically return to the station for maintenance. This
would keep the Hubble in operation indefinitely.

Such a mission would seem ideal for NASA. It will save a very
valuable and popular scientific facility. Iit will prove that
the ISS does in fact provide a useful base for in-space service
and assembly. This will in turn, as Dennis argues, obviate the
need for development of an expensive heavy lift rocket for the
Moon/Mars programs.

Furthermore, nothing could better prove the utility of both
unmanned and manned capabilities in space.

Sunday, May 2, 2004,12-1:30PM PST - Marianne
Dyson, "one of the first ten women to work in NASA
Mission Control. Ms. Dyson has her degree in physics and with
a lifelong interest in space, she fulfilled one of her many
space dreams with her NASA Mission Control position. After
working the first five space shuttle flights, she left NASA
to raise her children and began sharing her passion for space
through writing and speaking. She is the author of the award-wining,
Space Station Science, originally published by Scholastic,
that is now available in paperback from Windward. Home on
the Moon, published by National Geographic, is a must-read
for future lunar pioneers. The Space Explorer's Guide to Stars
and Galaxies is part of Scholastic's Space University book
club (www.scholastic.com/space)
series, and comes with a cool science kit..."

Unfortunately, I didn't post a notice in time for the program
last night with Ian Randal Strock, founder of the Artemis
Project. However, it should be available in the archive
soon. Note that recent interviews with Walt
Anderson and
Robert Zubrin are now archived.

... .Ruth Lubka, author
of PUPNIKS:
The Story of Two Space Dogs, tells me that Professor
Oleg Gazenko, who ran the Russian space biomedical program
during the Sputnik days, was given a copy of the book and responded
very graciously. "...good-hearted books help children form
a healthy attitude towards the world we live in. Let me heartily
thank you for remembering these space pioneers and, also, note
that there is a memorial plaque at one of the buildings of the
Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine in Moscow that commemorates
the flight in August 1960 of these outstanding dogs."

The company joins several other space companies that endured
near-death experiences in the post 2000 downturn and survived.
Iridium, Orbcomm,
Orbimage,
and StarBand Communication
are now privately held businesses pursuing niche markets.

Loral, whose
heavy debt from its investment in Globalstar drove it into Chapter
11, remains one of the big exceptions. However, it has now paid
off much of its debt with proceeds of a sale
of its North American satellites to Intelsat
and might get out of bankruptcy this year.

Rocketry contest finals...
The second year of the Team
America Rocketry Challenge sponsored by the NAR
& AIA will culminate in the finals
competition on May 22, 2004, at Great Meadow, The Plains, Virginia,
near Washington, D.C.

Alan Shepard bio... I heard
yesteday from Neal
Thompson: author of Light This Candle: The Life & Times
of Alan Shepard, America's First Spaceman . The book came
out on March 23 (by Crown Books). According to Neal, "Homer
Hickam (author of Rocket Boys) calls it 'one of the finest
books ever written about the space program.'" You can find
further info about the book and author on his website.
Also, Robert Pearlman recently interviewed the author: "'Candle'
author melts 'icy' astronaut" - collectSPACE - Mar.26.04

Moon-Mars committee hearing...
The next Aldrige
Committee hearing will take place this week on April 15-16th
at the Galileo Academy of Science and Technology in San Francisco,
California. This
meeting will focus on "fields of education, entertainment,
and robotics." Ray Bradbury will be the lead off spearker.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004, live 7-8:15PM PST - Rabbi Yehuda Grundman,
professor at The Kabbalah Center. "...his education goes
way beyond the spirito-religious as Yehuda Grundman possesses
extensive knowledge in construction engineering, mathematics,
and physics. Thus, Yehuda Grundman can span the knowledge from
the spiritual science of Kabbalah to the physical sciences. This
has made him especially qualified to further discuss with Space
Show listeners our intricate relationship between spirituality
and modern science, specifically our relationship with space --
not as two divergent or conflicting disciplines -- but two views
of the one same Mystery of Creation..."

Sunday, April 18, 2004,12-1:30PM PST - Rick Citron, "entrepreneur,
business lawyer, and specialist in space commercialization. Mr.
Citron is an attorney and entrepreneur specializing in business
law, space commerce, and more....Rick built his first micrograin
rockets in the late 1950's and assisted his brother, Bob Citron,
in the formation and capitalization of Spacehab, Inc. and Kistler
Aerospace Corporation."

The Mars
Society is proud to announce that it will hold its Second
Rouget de Lisle Award contest for songs celebrating the cause
of the human exploration and settlement of space.

We are asking for a tape or CD of songs, to be submitted together
with a hardcopy of the lyrics by no later than April 30, 2004
to Mars Society, Box 273, Indian Hills, CO 80454. Songs can
be any style; classical, folk, country, pop, jazz, rock and
roll, etc. A committee of judges will then down select to ten
finalists, who will be invited to play at the 7th
International Mars Society Convention, Palmer House Hilton,
Chicago, IL, Aug 19-22 2004. The audience will then vote for
the winning songs. All finalists, however, will submitted to
Prometheus
Records for consideration for its next CD, and will also
be forwarded to NASA for possible use as wakeup songs for crews
of the International Space Station, the Mars Rovers, and the
Cassini spacecraft which is now approaching Saturn!

The winner of our first contest "The Pioneers of Mars" was recently
used as wakeup music for the Mars rover Opportunity. Written
by partners in life and song Karen Linsley and Lloyd Landa,
"The Pioneers of Mars" was honored with the Mars Society's first
Rouget de Lisle award in 2000.

Co-author Landa died unexpected of a heart attack days before
the song's debut at the Mars Society's August 2000 Toronto conference,
after which Karen exclaimed in tears, "Get to Mars. And when
the notes of this song are heard on Martian soil, he will live
again."

So tune up your harps, space bards, turn in your songs and prepare
to turn out for Chicago. Let your voices ring out into the solar
system. Mars needs music, and the Chicago conference is going
to be the Woodstock of Mars!

Moving heaven if not earth...
Though Congress may occasionally listen
to warnings about the genuine possibility of a devastating strike
by a large asteroid, most likely nothing will come of it. So instead
of waiting for politicians to take action, astronauts Ed
Lu and Rusty
Schweickart and space scientists Piet
Hut and Clark
Chapman decided to try to do something about it themselves.

They founded the B612
Foundation to purse the goal of significantly altering the orbit
of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015. They plan to use
private funds for this demonstration experiment. Here is their plan
for moving an asteroid.

The Mars
Frontier by Robert
Stockman is now available on line. According to the author, the
novel deals with "the first landing on Mars, exploration of
the planet, and its eventual settlement. The novel attempts to make
reasonable assumptions about the technology available to send humans
to Mars in the 2020s, but speeds up the pace of settlement somewhat.
It also sets the exploration and settlement of Mars in the context
of exploration of the moon, Venus, asteroids, Mercury, and the outer
solar system."

News briefs ...
Sky
Ear is an unusual public science demonstration. The May 4th
event
above Greenwich, London will involve "a glowing 'cloud' of
mobile phones and helium balloons [...[ released into the air so
that people can dial into the cloud and listen to the sounds of
the sky."...

... Olliver Boisard'sSolar Sails
web site looks a lot spiffier and resource-full than the last time
I looked. ...

A Special Sunday Space
Show this evening at 6-7pm PST features "Loretta
Hidalgo and George Whitesides, founder of Yuri’s
Night. Loretta and George return to The Space Show to talk not
only about Yuri’s Night, but other important space issues and policies
that are happening at this time... George recently became the Executive
Director of the National Space Society."

Earth
impact simulator lets you choose the size, speed,
and other parameters for an asteroid or comet hitting the earth
and it returns the effects at a given distance from the impact center.

Part competitive, part not....
HS reader Kaido Kert notes that NASA says on its Lunar
Reconaissance Orbiter web page that it will "solicit and competitively
select the measurement investigations for the payload that best
meet the objectives of this mission. The Goddard Space Flight
Center (GSFC) has been designated by NASA to lead this mission
and will provide both the Spacecraft and the Launch Services for
the mission (these will not be competed)."

Kaido notes that "In other words, NASA will be competitively
buying science instruments and experiments, but not spacecraft
and launch services. I find it very odd, shouldnt it be exactly
the other way around?"

Seems to me that they could put all aspects of the project out
to bid. Certainly some of the bigger companies could build the
spacecraft (LockMart did a good job with the modestly budgeted
Lunar Prospector)
but also small innovative companies like TransOrbital
(HS advertiser) or SpaceDev
should have a chance at it. If it is within the payload range
of the Falcon V, then let SpaceX
bid for the launch.

April.8.2004Space News

Milestone in public space travel... The
licensing
of the SpaceShipOne
is a big step forward in the creation of an industry that will provide
opportunities to the public for travel into space; suborbital at
first, orbital later.

NASA itself is taking the initiative more seriously this time and
has already set in place a number of changes that will be difficult
to reverse even if Kerry wins. To free up money for the program,
some major projects have been canceled such as the Orbital Space
Plane, the X-43C, and RS-84 engine. The agency now seems to take
for granted that the shuttle really will stop flying by 2010 or
so. New approaches to hardware development include a fly-off for
the Crew Exploration Vehicle design and the Centennial
Challenges prizes program. (See A
few notes from the STA breakfast - Space Politics - Apr.6.04.)

Tuesday, April 6, 2004, live 7-8:15PM PST - "Joe Latrell
is the founder, president and CEO of Beyond-Earth
Enterprises. Mr. Latrell is an avid space enthusiast and for
most of his life he has designed and built his own rockets and
launch systems. Beyond-Earth is leading the way to the commercialization
of space by providing small payload launch capabilities at affordable
rates. Beyond-Earth's officers are committed to revitalizing the
American public's interest in space by conducting educational
demos and lectures at area schools..."

Sunday, April 11, 2004,12-1:30PM PST - "Mike Gaffey, Professor
of Space Studies at the University of North Dakota (UND). Dr.
Gaffey has been at UND since 2001. His research is into the nature
and origin of asteroids, space resources, impact hazards, and
the origin and evolution of life on Earth. Dr. Gaffey has strong
interests in history, cultural anthropology, paleontology (esp.
dinosaurs), and human prospects, with special interests in topics
such as Near-Earth object impact hazard, space resources, human
and unmanned space program, the origin and evolution of life on
Earth, and extra-terrestrial life.... "

Lunar resources and how to
extract them were discussed Thursday at the House Subcommittee on
Space and Aeronautics. In particular, the question of the day was
whether "more data are needed to determine if the moon has
enough water and minerals to support significant, ongoing human
activity there." Spaceref has posted the testimonies of the
witnesses and also a couple of summaries of the meeting:

Note that the Lunar Prospector
measured, with very high confidence levels, substantial deposits
of hydrogen at the poles. The logical assumption was then made that
the hydrogen was probably in water ice. However, subsequent radar
measurements from earth did not detect ice, at least if it was in
a surface layer of a meter or so thick. The radar telescopes cannot
see into the deepest craters at the poles whose interiors are in
permanent darkness. So there is still the chance that ice will be
found there.

Nonetheless, even if the hydrogen is not in water, that does not
mean it is inaccessible or of no use. Quite the contrary, the water
bond is quite strong so it may actually be easier to obtain the
hydrogen if it is weakly held in minerals. The lunar surface is
40% oxygen and its extraction will be a high priority regardless.
So water can then be made for consumption by settlers and the hydrogen
and oxygen used for fuel. (Though, as Jonathan Goff says in this
discussion
at Transterrestrial, using the hydrogen for fuel might actually
be a waste.)

Of course, this is all handwaving until there is serious research
done on the practicalities of resource extraction and there are
orbiters and rovers sent to the Moon to make a detailed inventory
of what is there.

Apollo launch tower could not
be saved despite the efforts of space history enthusiasts: Tower
Used by NASA Is Scrapped - NY Times - Mar.30.04. Shame that
neither NASA or the state of Florida, which has made billions over
the decades from KSC tourists, could not find a way to save it.

Space model store...Rick
Sternbach just opened his Space
Model Systems on line store. Rick has been doing space and science
fiction artwork since the early 1970s and has worked on films and
programs such as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Last
Starfighter, Future Flight, and Cosmos.

Mars Gravity wins grant...
The Mars Gravity
student led project aims to test centrifugally produced artificial
gravity in a spinning microsat that will include a group of mice.
They just won a $100K grant from NASA that will go to pay for their
"Preliminary Design Review (PDR), slated for later this year,
as well as payload and science laboratory prototyping and testing
at MIT."

What if Elon Musk's SpaceX
company does succeed in lowering the cost of reaching low earth
orbit to $1000 per pound ($2200 per kg) as described in this article?
That's 3 to 5 times lower than current
costs of non-Russian launchers and cheaper even than the Russian
ones.

This would mean a big drop in the cost for all sorts of prospective
projects, both public and private. Many of the Moon and Mars missions
scenarios, for example, will fall significantly in price, especially
if in-space assembly is used. (It should be required, in fact, that
those who are making estimates of the cost of the new space initiative
programs assume a launch price of $1000/lb as an upper limit.) It
would be interesting to revisit schemes like solar power stations
to see if they start to approach economic feasibility at $1000-$2000/lb.

The Falcon V is intended eventually to become man-rated and some
components will be so from the beginning. Even if the costs are
5-10 times higher for a manned version plus the spacecraft for people
to ride in, that still means a 200 pound person will reach orbit
for a price in the $1M-$2M range. Quite a bit cheaper than the current
$20M price. Price elasticity would indicate that the number of customers
would increase even faster than the factor of 10 to 20 in the drop
in ticket price. So space hotels start to look a lot more viable
since their launch costs are falling significantly while the market
is looking bigger.

SpaceX still hasn't launched its first rocket so we should not
count our space costs before they are realized. However, the fact
that a first rate team such as the one that Elon has assembled can
make a realistic try at $1000/lb means that such a price point is
not breaking any economic or physical laws as some have suggested.
If the launch rate goes up significantly from the 5 or so launches
per year that the SpaceX model assumes, then prices will drop even
lower with economies of scale. When getting to LEO goes for a few
hundred dollars per pound, then space starts to get really, really
interesting.